You're Still Human
by loveandzelink
Summary: PostTP! Heartbroken from Midna's departure to the Twilight Realm, Link commits a terrible mistake, and shuts himself from the people who despises him and the people he worked to save. It is up to Zelda to help him deal with the aftermath. Songfic to Taylor Swift's "Innocent." Zelink.


**a/n**: Happy New Year's Eve, guys! And I am proud to say _You're Still Human_ is the third and final of the Taylor Trilogy For Zelink! This one deals with a lot of angst on Link's part, but Zelda is the hero this time!

Zelda belongs to Nintendo and "Innocent" belongs to Taylor Swift!

happy reading!

~ loveandzelink

* * *

_**You're Still Human**_

* * *

_I guess you really did it this time  
Left yourself in your warpath  
Lost your balance on a tightrope  
Lost your mind tryin' to get it back_

I remember as if it was yesterday.

Except it wasn't. Instead, it is exactly thirty-one days since she was that day when his heart shattered over and over, before an empty mirror stand. The day when he felt everything—the anger, the depression, and the pain all at once; the day when he caused the wretched cries of bewilderment of so many innocents. The day when he was enraged and he blew that rage upon my people, his people, that he worked so desperately to save.

And then when he woke up from his storm, it was like she vanished again.

His horror was evident enough on his face as the marred sword in his hand. How he tried to reject the scene before him, of people who seethed resentment through their pores, and he only mouthed one word "_No._" How he looked at me like I could bring her back. Or like I could say it was not his fault since I knew him of the Hero of Light. But everybody knew him as Hero of Light.

Not after what he did.

So he ran. Gave me a pleading look speaking of "_I'm sorry…_" and ran.

No one has seen him ever since.

I am ashamed to say my people were pleased that he had disappeared as she did. He was delusional and destroyed so much of them. They moved on, having no indication that it was her that provoked him to commit evil things. Yet, she did not want him to become like such, but could she not see the outcome when she left him so?

So since both are them are in denial, it will have to be me to take the blame and resolve this dilemma.

I believe I could have done something. I could have told her how much it will hurt for him and her. I could have told him what she was doing ahead of time. I could have done so much and changed so much.

But the past is in the past.

Right now, I am atop my white stallion Wisteria, heading towards the one I can save along Hyrule Fields.

Now is the time for me to act when there was news that he returned. However, he only locked himself in his house and never came out. His horse, Epona, was in care of Ilia, his friend back in Ordon. It was also she who sent me the letter.

It will be me to finally do the saving.

_Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?  
Always a bigger bed to crawl into  
Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything?  
And everybody believed in you?_

I think of Midna sometimes.

She was the one to break his heart in order to protect her kingdom.

The things you do for your people is simply unbelievable. I would know, I surrendered to Zant's Twilight Army or either die trying to fight against the Twili usurper. I surrendered my freedom to walk along the halls of my dictated palace.

Yet now, I have slipped away from my Council's always watching eyes to support him. It is all for the better, after all.

As I slid off Wisteria near a spouting tree, I think of him before his Hero days.

I learned that he was a ranch hand in the less modern province of Ordon. He lived apart from the village in a colossal tree. He cares for a beautiful chestnut mare that lived with him as long as he remembered. He knew everyone in Ordon and everyone knew him. Although he was a nobody in a small farming village, he was happy.

Now he is a nobody who was somewhat hated among several.

Was it better if he had not accepted his fate?

I sit down upon a stream's edge and watch myself ask questions to the water's reflection. There was no answer; instead I dip my cupped hands into the water before bringing it to my lips. A new thought rises as my eyes catch a fish flipping dazzlingly into the air before returning into the safe waters.

Perhaps it would have been better if fate had not called upon him.

But then like the fish, he would not be freed into the sunny air and be freed from places that were already familiarized. He would have been stuck in Ordon, never meeting so many significant people, never exploring so many new and unique regions, never being known as a hero, never learning the complicated ways of life, never meeting her.

I push myself to my feet and walk over to Wisteria.

"Are you ready to leave now?" I murmur to him. Wisteria snorts in response and lowers his head to nibble at the grass.

I smile at his stubborn response. He's stubborn much like the Hero.

After Ganondorf's fall, Midna told me about Link. She would tease that words of importance seem to come through one ear and out of another. But what made him so attractive to the Goddesses was the belief that he was pure of heart. She loved that about him. And so did he, but for different reasons. And now they both were hopelessly in love, a type that left both lifeless.

Maybe it would have been better if fate had not called upon him.

I sigh.

Wisteria sense my gloominess and nudges me with his grey speckled muzzle.

Beaming, I laugh, "You're right, Wist. We'll find a way."

_It's all right, just wait and see  
Your string of lights is still bright to me  
Oh, who you are is not what you've been  
You're still an innocent  
You're still an innocent_

I find it strange for me to be the one to talk to him.

I thought of everyone but me to be the one to speak to him. But somehow, it is me to fit into that someone to speak to Link.

"It is because I have the Triforce, is it not?" I ask and atop Wisteria.

He responds by progressing his powerful legs faster, mistaking my question for a command of speed. I stumble for a short second before taking the reins and pulling it to a real command of slowing down.

He snorts and keeps going the speed he was intent on keeping.

"What is going on with you?" I scold him.

He stops in front of a sign with candle lights decorating the wooden board.

"How attractive." I smile. But my eyes read the sign's wording as 'Kakariko Village up ahead.' I then realize the date.

"I'm in time of the Light Festival," I brighten my smile, pulling the reins on Wisteria motioning to go ahead, "you and I have not been to one, have we?"

Wisteria abruptly stands on his back legs and shoots like a battle steed. I gasped tightly, gripping his white hair in white fists before he snaps back on four hooves and dashes forward.

In a very small moment, we ran past the large overhead sign labeling "Kakariko Village" and into the heart of the village itself. Wisteria stops to an extreme halt, causing me to stumble off by diving over his head and into shallow waters.

"Wist!" I scold, trying to lift my soggy self onto my own two feet. He snorts, striding over to me with his head down. I smile inwardly and grab gently at his neck to pull myself up more easily, causing the stallion to stumble a tiny ways in my direction.

Wisteria snorts yet again as I clutch his head.

Just then, I noticed all the bright strings of candle lights and lanterns surrounding the waters. There were large and small, painted and colored, one candle light and three candle lights. All around this peaceful area was streaming with bursts of light from different corners. However, the circular spring seemed familiar.

Eldin Spring.

"Stay." I pull away from Wisteria to walk to the center of the spring. "Eldin...?"

In return, there was no answer. I scratch absently at my right hand which held the Triforce that gleams in the silent air.

A sudden voice then spoke as if they were whispering into my ear. "You will be the Hero... Of Him..."

"Pardon me?" I softly march closer to the mini waterfalls but instead notice a lantern, nothing too special, that was decorated with a painting of Hyrule Fields with Eldin bridge clearly in the background. In the fields were the Ordon gang, and then others,Gorons, Zoras, Yetis, and even Twili tribes in their characteristic beauty. Finally Midna in her true form (and the tallest of all the people), Epona, and—

Is that _me_?

"Link mailed that to us," a foreign voice informs me.

_There's some things you can't speak of  
But tonight you'll live it all again  
You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now  
If only you could see what you know now then_

I turn around to hastily face the voice.

It was only a man. With dark dreadlocks, a hoop piercing in his also dark left eyebrow, almond colored eyes, and the heavy clothing of a shaman. His expression was silently sagacious, reposed, and a bit perturbed by my presence.

I knew him, however. Well, not personally, but I knew him of his aid to Link.

"Renado," I realize and I drag myself as gracefully as I could over to him.

"And you are...?" His eyes truly expresses no recognition.

I tilt my head a little to the left, wondering why he would ask such question. Can he not see—

I bring my hands to my hood and, fumbling, shove it off my matting hair.

He still seems unfazed, but murmurs, "You are the Princess?"

"I am going to be held as Queen in a few days time." I smile warmly.

He surprisingly smiles back, then beckons me to his side with one slow arm. "Well then, Your Grace, please come into my humble home and rid yourself of the wet clothing." He pauses as I catch up beside him. "I'm sure Kakariko has a villager with extra clothing."

"Uh... pardon me." I nibble my lower lip as my question came to mind. "Has... Link—perhaps—wrote anything to you... when he mailed the lantern?"

The shaman is quiet before he shakes his head, dark dreads lightly whirling against a reply of disappointment. "Nothing, Your Grace."

"You may call me Zelda..." I sigh, turning towards Link's lantern's way.

"He is in deep trouble, is he not?" Renado sighs, dropping his dark head.

"He is," I answer, my hands clutch my dripping hair away from my face. "But do not fret, I will be the one to help him get back onto his feet."

"All right then." Renado glances at the busy streets of Kakariko; it was heavily bright with more candles and lanterns as party goers talk, cheer, and laugh. "You may join the Festival as soon as you are dressed properly."

"All right then," I mimic his words and he smiles with the tiniest bit of humor.

We then walk off towards the village.

"You will be the Hero... of Him..." The voice repeats as I was brought inside.

_Wasn't it easier in your firefly-catchin' days?  
And everything out of reach, someone bigger brought down to you?  
Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep?  
Before the monsters caught up to you?_

"Is that so?" I ask softly, my hands grasping tighter on the mug of tea.

"Link would never forget us." Luda, Renado's bright and charming daughter, beams at me. She has the same dark hair and light eyes as her father but her face gleams childish innocence.

I was fortunately changed into dry clothes, belonging to the baker's wife who was a few years younger than me. Also, Luda told me Link has a few years on me since he does reside in a house by himself. She smiles at my expression of shock. "Beth told me."

"He sounds," I pause searching for the right word, "_human_."

Luda stares at me with her dark eyebrows raised. "Well, Your Majesty, he is human."

"Please call me Zelda," I correct and sip my tea.

She nods, staring then at her pretty boots which hang off the stairs of her home. I glance at the fireplace in the middle and thoughtlessly brush her downward hair behind her tiny ears.

"Do you want to go to the Light Festival now?" I ask with my observant eyes to her reaction.

Instantly, she looks up at me and nods energetically.

A moment later, we're outside with a sunflower (the flower representing the sun or light) in her dark hair and many sunflowers settled in my own hair. She beams, holding onto her lantern drawn of herself and Beth. Renado was also drawn with a mystery woman next to him. I presume she was Luda's mother.

"We're just in time," She notices my bare hands. "You don't have a lantern, Miss Zelda."

"What for?" I inquire to a missing Luda. She runs to the spring and fetches Link's lantern. When she runs back, she shoves the lantern into my hands. She then stands beside me again. "You can use Link's. Since he isn't here."

I shrug and held Link's lantern up to my eyes. I find out I was correct, there is a me. The painted me was sitting atop Epona as beside us was Link and Midna who both faced each other with tears.

'_He must really miss her,_' I think, settling the lantern away from my saddened eyes.

"It's starting, Miss Zelda! It's starting!" Luda happily points out. Out of nowhere, she pulls a string coming out of the bottom of her lantern and then it flies calmly into the sparkling air.

I do the same, finding the string on his lantern to come out from the top. It flies upward as well, catching up to Luda's whirling lantern. My eyes flit to the night sky where most lanterns were flying in one twinkling group.

Although it must be a couple lanterns in the air, it looks like there was thousands in the black background of the sky. It seems to be decorated with human stars as the illuminated lanterns draw closer to the heavens. Human stars glitter and pirouette across the heavenly dance floor as they draw even closer and closer, farther and farther, almost out of sight.

There were so many lovely lanterns to keep sight of but my eyes stay on Link's.

_It's all right, just wait and see  
Your string of lights is still bright to me  
Oh, who you are is not what you've been  
You're still an innocent_

I set off to Ordon immediately the next morning. Luda was saddened by my departure, but I promised her I would send a carriage for her to the castle some day. She is believing in that one vow since I left.

So now I traverse with Wisteria as my only company.

Soon, we're striding into a closed-in path that with tree branches aim to hit my face and body parts so I had to crouch low onto Wisteria's neck. He snorts at the tightness of my white fists.

"I apologize," I whisper as a tree branch almost whip me on the cheek. As we pass, I notice something on the tree branch.

"Halt, Wist!" I command, pulling fiercely at the reins. He stops, to my relief, but snorts, wanting to pass through the path in record time.

"Stay," I respond, slipping off his back.

The tree branch still held the mystery item. I raise to my tip toes to retrieve the item stuck in the branch. When my hand was able to pull it out of the tree, my mind saw true.

A lantern.

_Link's lantern._

"What a coincidence," I call to Wisteria. He only neighs, wishing to speed through the path already. My eyes looks over the item I had in my hands only last night.

The lantern had a few holes from branches poking through the thin material and some paint was chipped off, but overall it looks like before. Except for the candle wax dripping out from the bottom.

And then I am sure the lantern had a painting of Midna facing Link and not me.

I shrug it off, picking the lantern by the string from the top. I went my way over to Wisteria and climb atop him, hooking the lantern onto the saddle. I show my stallion the beautiful lantern. He mistook that for a sign to go on ahead. I am well prepared this time and hung tightly.

We made it through another overhead sign, of which had a distinctive person with red bushy hair and a belly, despite his young age. A bird nest was nestled on the top of his hair with two adorable birds.

Wisteria begin to move around him, but he speaks to us.

"Hey there!" he greets cheerfully, not scaring the birds.

"Um, hello," I greet back, turning Wisteria towards the strange man. He snorts, not wanting to affiliate with such person.

The stranger notices Link's lantern. "Hey ma'am, is that a lantern?"

I glance at the lantern found only a few moments ago. "Yes, it is."

He impulsively walks over and inspects the lighting invention. "I'm not used to this kind of lanterns." He pulls a metal lantern from behind himself. "More of these."

"That's very nice to know, Sir," I politely respond. Wisteria senses my awkwardness and snaps forward.

But the stranger calls, "Hey, is that Link on your lantern?"

Wisteria and I both stop. "You know him?"

"Uh, yeah." He tilts his head back. "Once was a regular customer of mine. Came back for more lantern oil than others did." He chuckles to himself, then scaring the birds."Well, I did give him a free lantern."

"Oh," I mumble, not exactly thrilled at the information I was given.

"Hey, ma'am." He smiles, unhooking Link's lantern and filling it with some liquid from the pot hooked behind him. "For you—Link's friend—a free refill."

"Um, thank you. That is very kind of you." I smile back as he hooks the lantern to my saddle again.

Wisteria cannot take the talking and burst forward. I call out in time, "Thank you again, Sir!"

"I'm Coro!" His reply was almost lost in the wind of speed.

"You are so rude," I scold Wist. He snorts as I glance at the lantern.

'_It was the brightest to me for a reason_.' I smile inwardly while Wisteria takes me farther from Coro, but closer to Link.

_It's okay, life is a tough crowd  
32, and still growin' up now  
Who you are is not what you did  
You're still an innocent_

I reach a spring.

However, someone is already in the waters.

"No, wait!" The person calls out.

A girl with light blonde hair that ends and curls at the nape of her neck. She was pretty with the innocence of a farm girl and light grassy green eyes.

"Um, greetings, Your Highness." She walks over to me, Epona following suit.

"You may call me Zelda." I smile warmly and slide off Wisteria, the smile still intact. "Are you the one who sent for me? Ilia, was it?"

"Yes... um, Zelda... I am Ilia. Link's childhood friend and all." She offers her hand, which was callused from farm work.

I take her hand in my bare one, feeling the years of village girl in the palm of her hand. We shook as we both beam in greeting at each other.

When we both took our hands back, she speaks, "I'm really worried for Link and he showed no sign of wanting to talk to me. Or my father or his teacher, Rusl." She frown, the act causing her pretty face to be gloomed. "I don't know why..."

"And you are sure I do?" I ask in a high authority voice, save for my Council.

She stumbles at my change in my tone. "Well... I... You see..."

I laugh lightly and gather her callused hands into my own. "You have a good heart, Ilia. You care for your friend and that was enough help you did, calling for me." She smiles, for the sweet friendliness back into my words. "Now it is my turn to help him."

I release her hands and stood in entrance of the spring. "Now will you please care of my Wisteria," at his name, my white stallion raise his head high, "and point me to Link's direction?"

Ilia informs me to go straight on one path and Link's house will be to my left. She then glides over to Wisteria and takes his head in her hands. Epona follows suit, curious of Wisteria but he ignores her, caring only for the human's attention.

Ilia and I both giggle at his selfishness. Epona strides over to me so I gave her a grand embrace. Epona neighs in my arms as Wisteria snorts. I whisper into her chestnut fur, "I am going to help your owner, okay?"

"Um," Ilia murmurs loud enough into Wisteria's fur, "how long has Link acted like this?"

"Thirty-two days now," I answer assuredly and let go of Epona. She gave me a horse kind-of smile before trotting back to Ilia's side.

She is silent before she asks her next question. "Will you take care of him?"

I am a bit confused of her question. Does not everyone in this village take care of him? "Of course. I give you my word." I reply, curiosity seeping into my answer.

She smiles, as if from relief and brought both horses' heads close to her downward one.

"Take good care of him, then." She speaks to her bare feet waddling in the clear waters.

"I will. Goodbye," I tell Ilia, Epona, and Wisteria. They all call out their good lucks and goodbyes as I begin to walk to save him.

As the spring was getting out of sight I hear, "You will be the Hero... of Him..."

_Time turns flames to embers  
You'll have new Septembers  
Everyone of us has messed up too_

I face a ladder that leads up a house. Beside the ladder was a sign, '_Link's House_.'

"I cannot climb ladders. Wooden ones at that," I mumble to myself as my hands grip the worn wood. Closing my eyes, my hands keep going higher and higher till a short moment later, I was up top. I smile to myself, enjoying the small view. "Fairly well done."

The door, then. I blow hair off my face, grasp the also wooden doorknob and twist it to open the wooden frame.

Darkness envelops me as the door clangs shut behind me. I want to shout out Link's name but I feel my words would be enveloped in the darkness. A strange fear moves down my spine.

'_This is peculiar,_' I think, feeling for anything. Hopefully, nothing too frightening will pop out at me or instead of saving him, someone would have to save me.

'_Goddesses I need your help_,' I pray in silence. I hiss as my foot hit something hard. '_Please give me a sign to find him in this horrible, dark obscurity_.'

Just then, something on me crinkle.

Link's lantern.

_Of course_.

I thank the Goddesses for their sign and Coro for the free refill as the house is miraculously lit with beautiful luminosity. But Link's house isn't so beautiful. Everything is strewn off tables, out of cupboards, out of any places atop a surface, and out onto the floor. Beneath my foot was a picture of Ilia and Link.

"Poor girl," I breathe quietly, afraid if I did so loudly. My fingers clung more tightly to the lantern as I bent down to take the picture and set it down onto an empty table.

I flung my lantern in all directions to find higher floors, but no bodies in any of them. Only then did my observant eyes spot an even lower floor.

"Even more ladders," I grumble, grasping the lantern tighter again as I begin my descent down. This was more terrifying as my only source of light was held in my hand and not all gleaming around me.

When my feet land with ground, I breathe out a sigh of relief before a grin triumphantly lines my lips.

Suddenly, a sound. A sound of a human shifting his weight or perhaps rustling of clothes.

_Link is here._

Just in case the sound was not by Link, I pull my flowery hood, from another Kakariko's borrowing, over my head, over my eyes. I free my waist sash to over my mouth and around my neck. Much like a scarf. If this was Link, he would recognize me, but then he would recognize an old, painful memory.

Shrugging it off, I slung the lantern into the downstairs' center.

No Link.

But wait. There is a shuffling near the far corner. My lantern follows the sound.

And there he is.

Covered by layers of cloth, very dark ones, and a large hood over his seemingly grimy blond hair. It seems he was sitting in the position with legs near chest, forehead meets knees, and his face facing his raised legs. There's nothing near or around him. Just him in an light less area with absolutely nothing.

"Link?" I call out impulsively.

"I have messed up, Your Grace," he only responds in a mumble from his dingy shelter.

I timidly walk over and settle the lantern in front of us. Then I sat with my arms around my raised legs, as close as possible to his ill-lighted form to hear him. To hear him tell me of his story.

_Lives change like the weather  
I hope you remember  
Today is never to late to  
Be brand new_

But he's quiet.

I try to remember what I was going to say to him first. Then again, I remembered I never got around on trying to figure that out.

"Link?" I try instead to begin with. "We all had a fair share of these types of experiences before. You're not the only one.''

Nothing.

I start, yet again.

"There are many of tragedies in life. This is only one of them. The thing is... tragedies are made to help you realize there is a stronger person in you. In your life. They are made so you can realize that hidden person and overcome."

Again, nothing.

"And if you don't have the nerve to overcome," I continue on, unsure of where I will be heading. "Life will change. Nothing will stay the same, forever. Like... the weather. _Life changes like the weather_. One day it will be sunny or—in your case—the most beautiful twilight," I emphasize twilight but receive nothing more than a shuffle of feet, "and the next day it can be raining heavily. Link, not everyday will continue to rain on and on. It will be twilight again, I give you my word."

I hear a rustle underneath his hat, perhaps Link thinking?

"Why can't you make today the day of twilight?" I sigh almost to myself, brushing the hood off my head. When he's still silent, I yank off my sash and lower it between our bodies. Still silence. I absently sweep at nonexistent fluff on my borrowed dress, my eyes still on his stilled figure.

_I will not give up on him. He will speak to me._

After a few minutes passing, he sighs.

And then more silence.

This is simply pathetic. I will have to try a new tactic…

Standing up, I snap at him, "Link, you have the gift of the Goddesses, the Triforce of Courage! Stand up to this pain and fight against it! Use what the Goddesses gave you! Be brave! Be brand new! Be anything you want to be because you have the courage to do so!"

Finally, _finally_, he says something. "I cannot, Princess. There is no reason for me to continue on living... when no one even cares for my existence..." I stop, transfixed by his voice which speaks clear as daybreak.

"If I am shut away from the world, maybe I can forget about her... maybe I will never face and remember that day ever again... because I will never know... never know what is happening, maybe..." he trails off, his last words lost in his darkness.

I am in awe of him.

He just wants to get away from that day... he just wants to be left alone. He thinks no one cares, probably thinks she does not care. I calmly settle beside his still form yet again, before beginning to peel off a layer of his pathetic self.

_It's all right, just wait and see  
Your string of lights are still bright to me  
Oh, who you are is not what you've been  
You're still an innocent_

He shoots his head up and his green hat slides off his bedhead hair.

"What are you doing, Princess?" he demands, glaring at my hands which peels off another layer.

"You are not alone," I hiss through clenched teeth. "And please do not call me anything more than Zelda."

"Leave me be," he moans and buries his head into the cloths he has left.

After childish battles of tug-and-war, I finally got to the last layer and yank it off his now bare chest. He seems to shed the Hero's Tunic that reminds the both of us of the day he almost destroyed Castle Town.

He groans and curls closer into his ball of pity and anguish.

"Link, get up! Link, you are not staying here any longer! _Link!_" I hiss repeatedly at his disgraceful form of a hero. Where is the Hero of Light? But then what kind of a hero would wallow in their sorrow?

Out of nowhere, he wails, "You sound just like her!"

Midna.

I stop and my hands freeze, like time forced them to. All is silent as he moans terribly into his crossed arms. I honestly cannot speak for myself.

_Of course._

Have I been so _blind_? Have I been so _foolish_? Being of royalty, people expect me to be some supernatural being. Like Link—as a hero—my people and I expect him to act like he is supernatural. But they're wrong. I am wrong. Just as I cannot solve every Hyrulean dispute, Link cannot fight everything thrown in his way. He cannot fight this internal quandary, this _heartbreak_. Others cannot fight heartbreak as well, so he is like others... because he is one. He feels, he hurts, he laughs, he cries as my people—as I—do. Link was an ordinary citizen after all, before becoming a hero, was he not? He could have well been walking and talking like the rest of us if he had not been chosen.

Realization finally dawns upon me.

He may be the legendary Hero of Light but he is also an innocent human being.

_It's okay, life is a tough crowd  
32, and still growin' up now  
Who you are is not what you did  
You're still an innocent_

I honestly have no idea what to do.

I have learned to calm down political disputes, learned to find the justice in Hylian crimes, learned to talk of an unbiased perspective, learned to say the exact right words, learned to rule a country.

But I have not learned to comfort others.

He does not cry. Tears do not make their way down his grungy cheeks. Yet he unleashes sounds similar of a wounded wolf. Sounds that can shatter your heart by piece by piece, sound by sound. Link is an innocent human and here I am—yelling at him, expecting him to magically be cured of heartbreak and face the world. When it should be me curing him and yet I do not even know how to cure or comfort him. I have never faced heartbreak.

Now, I have broken my word to Ilia.

"I apologize greatly..." I mumble to myself. He does not hear and grips his clothing; he's beginning to hide himself like a child, and his teeth are grinding together. He's trying to help himself, by himself.

Curse you, Midna.

I cannot stand alone anymore.

Without any care of what he will think, I smoothly take Link's head and lay it upon my shoulder. Clean flesh meets filthy flesh but I control myself not to shudder. Instead, I pull him closer, laying one hand on his still dry cheek and the other on his shoulder blade.

"_It's all right_…" I murmur to him over and over, much like my deceased mother had done before.

Link is silent at first at my brashness. I can practically taste the slow shock reacting through himself, but then he starts to weep and soon, I feel steady tears stream onto his cheeks and onto my fingers and my shoulder. His arms entangle around my shaking waist as he shakes like a storm was brewing inside his self. Marks of his tears are beginning to appear onto my clothing but I comfort him to allow everything flow smoothly out. As his cries for Midna grow louder, I begin to hum and sing softly for only ourselves to hear,

"_It's all right just wait and see..._" I sing softly, remembering this ancient lullaby from my deceased mother. "_Your string of lights is still bright to me oh_…"

He stops trembling for a moment and temporarily stops the tears. He lifts his head to gaze at me with azure, tear-filled, eyes—all the while—dealing with the fact that Midna is gone and will never come back. But I deal with his strange eyes on me. Even with tears still gathering in those piercing orbs, I spill the next words in a tremble, "_Who you are is not what you've been... you're still an innocent..._"

For a moment, it is just the two of us. It is solely indescribable, but perhaps it mostly feels as if time stops to let us have our one moment of complete solace. Solace of considering the presence of only two people. Is this was Link needed? To be an innocent in front of another, and to be noticed that he was human like the other as well?

When the moment fades away, I find Link closing those wounded, azure eyes and flat out asleep in my arms.

_Lost your balance on a tightrope  
It's never too late to get it back_

His eyelids flutter open like butterfly wings. He seems to smile at me first, but then realizes who I am and how I am in his house.

"Princess?" Link gasps, shooting right up in his sofa/bed.

"Yes, that is me, but you forget my name, have you already? And a good morning to you too," I answer, smiling at his gobsmacked face he wore with his jaw dropped. He is simply adorable with his mussled hair around and the expression he wore! I then pull something from underneath my wooden chair. "Do you remember this?"

"Huh," he mumbles, closing his jaw and clutching his lantern from my fingers. He turns the item around, gazing at the still detailed paintings. "Wait a moment... was that not Midna facing me... and you on Epona?"

"Link," I beam, taking the lantern from him and standing up, "Do not think I had anything to do with your pictures here..." My index finger swirls around the lantern at the emphasis of 'pictures'.

He only shrugs, throwing his sheets aside to get out of bed.

We do not speak of the day before.

He begins to throw clothes on his half-naked self as I perch on a wooden table, keeping my eyes to the lantern's painting of me and him. On the lantern, the painted Link wears no more tears, but a bright happiness as he gaze at the painted Zelda. I was reminded of the day of the Light Festival with Luda and the dancing lanterns.

"Do you wish to see your lantern in action?" I ask.

He only flinches slightly and laces a baggy shirt at the neck. " I don't think so… not today anyway…"

"I can see your reasoning, Link," I murmur to a squinty-eyed hero, "but the past is in the past. The days are anew and it's never too late on new days such as these." With a wave of hand, I motion to the high window streaming sunshine.

He turns towards me with an cross expression. I abruptly shut my mouth and begin to mumble other options, but instead, he grabs my hand.

"Okay, let us go then..." He smiles at my bewildered expression before throwing the door open to the outside world. His azure eyes are bright with mischief and true happiness. The dirt in his blond hair seems to be cleaned out with the plentiful sunlight streaming from the door. His formerly wailing mouth is curved into a cocky grin.

I beam back at him as we are about to set onto a path, a path perhaps fate has called upon and set for the both of us.

"Okay then, let us go!" I mimic and we smile on our way back onto the course of life.

**[end]**

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Please Read&Review! Thank you!


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